Do you think that might be one of your better pass protection games of the season?
Yeah, I’ll just say this: I thought we commanded the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, particularly on offense. When you’re calling plays, that’s something I particularly pay a lot of attention to. And the ability to run and throw the football, particularly in normal down and distance, I thought it really benefited our play-action game, our fake game. I thought Scott Wells and the offensive line really set the tempo today and even on the other side, I thought our defensive line commanded the line of scrimmage. We knew this was going to be a battle that started up front and I don’t need to see the film to say that we definitely commanded that battle.

Was there any satisfaction or vindication in that you were probably the more physical team today?
Well, when we walked out that locker room, there were two things we said we were going to do. We were going to be more physical than our opponent and we were going to be more disciplined than our opponent. We feel that we accomplished that. But ’07 was a different time. They got to play in the Super Bowl, I think that speaks for itself.

Do you think this was your most complete game of this season so far?I would say it definitely ranks up there as one of our most complete games. I thought we performed very well in all three areas. The field position was a little bit in their favor earlier and I thought Tim Masthay at a big point in the game changed the field position with the big punt. Six turnovers, that says a lot about our defense and special teams. It was a major emphasis for us. We just felt that we weren’t doing a very good job the last two weeks taking care of the football and weren’t getting enough takeaways. We were able to accomplish that today. We knew there was going to be big-play opportunities, there always is in these playoff-type games, and we definitely had our share of big play opportunities and point production, time of possession, and all the key statistics that you’re looking for. But it starts up front. We had tremendous energy. We had an excellent week of practice. I’m a big believer in that preparation carries over. I love the mindset of this team. These guys step up week in and week out and we’ve got a big one here in seven days. It can’t get here fast enough.

Does it feel like a playoff win? Absolutely. You have to put it in that category. We had no choice. Our record is what it is and to have an opportunity to play at home, I can’t say enough about our fans. I thought they were tremendous today, just able to get out in front there early. I thought they played a big part in our success. Everybody knows what the score is. We’re at nine wins and we must get to 10 wins to get in the tournament.

How would you characterize Aaron Rodgers' performance considering what he went through?Well, it’s one of his better ones because I pay more attention to the decisions and the ball accuracy and some of the type of the small, detailed things that he does. I thought he was extremely sharp especially after not playing last week. He did an excellent job at the line of scrimmage, keeping us in favorable down and distances, and when the big-play opportunity presented itself, him and Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson, all the way through, were able to convert on those plays.

When you threw downfield did you see something that you could attack? Well, defense dictates a lot of times where the ball goes. They are an aggressive team defensively, the way they line up and challenge you schematically. They get a lot of production out of their front. I think it goes once back again to the fine performance we had by our offensive line today. It created the one-on-ones, the time clock needed for us to take advantage of those one-on-ones on the outside.

You had more than 500 yards of total offense. Is that the most efficient the offense has been? I would say so. It seems like every time I come in here I have to talk about something negative. We had the one fumble inside the red zone so let’s get that out of the way. But other than that, I don’t know if you can play much better than that on offense. 45 points says a lot. We score 45 points, especially with our defense, we expect to win significantly.

QUARTERBACK AARON RODGERS:

What did it mean to have a performance like that coming off the concussion? “That was important. I was teasing (Matt) Flynn I had to get my job back. Matt played so well last week. It was fun. I had a good week of preparation this week. I think that’s kind of where it started. I felt good throwing the ball all week, liked the game plan, liked the things we were trying to do and once we were into the game, I liked the rhythm that Mike (McCarthy) had our offense in.”

Why were you so successful with the deep throws and why were there so many?“I think that’s something we do pretty well. We throw it pretty well; we do a nice job ‘stacking defenders’ as we like to call it. Greg (Jennings) made a really nice catch on the one down the right sideline and Jordy (Nelson) there at the end had a nice catch. That’s something we work on a lot. Like I said, good week of practice and good execution of that.”

What was working for the offensive line in terms of pass protection? “I wish you could put a finger on exactly what the reason was, but I think you’ve got to give Chad (Clifton) a lot of credit. There was really not much coming from his side. He did a nice job. I think the one guy we were trying to give some help to was Brian Bulaga and I think Brian did a really nice job on (Justin) Tuck the majority of the time. We might have figured they would bring a few more pressures tonight. They played a little bit more coverage but we were able to make some big plays.”

Did the concussion have any impact on how you played this week? “I think positively, yes. It was like a week off late in the season for my body. I felt all week a lot of energy. My arm felt like it was live. I threw the ball really good in practice, so I had a lot of confidence going into the game that I was going to perform this way – obviously, not maybe as well as it went – but I think you can contribute that to some really good play calls at certain times and some big plays by some guys.”

About Tom Silverstein

Tom Silverstein has covered the Green Bay Packers since 1989. He is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year award winner.